Sunday, May 10, 2009

The heart of the matter

As Rafi Zabor said, in the first article I ever read about Watazumido Shuso Roshi, shakuhachi master, Rinzai Zen teacher, and martial arts master, at least 20 years ago in the magnificent, much-missed Musician: Player & Listener, "there's nothing like a good standup mystic". He would practice in the middle of the busiest intersection during Tokyo's rush hour, to work on his concentration. He'd go out to the railroad yards and practice screaming louder than the trains, to work on his focus and breath control. And every few years he'd change his name and location, figuring that those students who found him after such a shift would be the students who really wanted to do the work.

It's fine that you are all deep into music. But there's something deeper and if you would go deeper, if you go to the source of where the music is being made, you'll find something even more interesting. At the source, everyone's individual music is made. If you ask what the deep place is, it's your own life and it's knowing your own life, that own way that you live.
Making a sound, you try to make various different sounds that imitate various different sounds of the universe, but what you are finally making is your own sound, the sound of yourself.
Gassho.

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